News

Council can't afford to insure its Gainsboroughs

A multi-million-pound collection of paintings that includes works by Constable and Gainsborough is lying uninsured because a local authority has decided it cannot afford the premium, writes Richard Brooks.

The works, housed at Christchurch Mansion in Ipswich, Suffolk, and owned by Ipswich council, form the most significant collection of the two artists’ paintings outside London.

The disclosure in next month’s issue of The Art Newspaper raises concerns that councils are giving such low priority to heritage that some parts of the country may become “cultural deserts”. While councils must meet the cost of insuring art collections from their resources, national collections such as the British Museum and the Tate are indemnified by the government.

Tim Heyburn, the council’s head of museums, said the annual premium of about £40,000 to cover its collection of over 15,000 works would have been “too costly”. He said: “It was decided by the local authority